Techy Teacher

Imagine this scenario: You're on your way to a national park and you start to get curious if you'll get a signal there. Will it be enough to make a call, or send that sweet picture to a loved one? Well, data for all 63 of the national parks in the U.S. is a tough ask, but thanks to a new report by Ookla, the top five is pretty easy to find.  According to said report, the top five fastest national parks in the U.S. are Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Grand Teton, Cuyahoga Valley, and Hot Springs national parks. At the top of the list, Sequoia had a median download speed of 163.3 Mbps while Hot Springs put up 117.33 Mbps. Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google . Upload speeds were mostly the same, with Mount Rainier, Grand Teton, and Sequoia making a second appearance, though the Hawaii Volcanoes and Big Bend national parks squeaked in as well. The winner here was Mount Rainier with 21.04 Mbps, with Big Bend coming in fifth with a 6.12 ...

The mod comes courtesy of YouTuber Naga, who pried open a Switch 2 and installed a larger 8,000 mAh battery in place of the factory-fitted 5,220 mAh unit. To the amusement of many social media users, he even used a pair of metal-cutting scissors to saw off a sizable portion... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/ClwgRf5 via

Starting with the A19 Pro, Apple's flagship SoC in the iPhone 17 Pro Max scored 3,895 points in the single-core test and 9,746 points in the multi-core test on Geekbench 6. These figures represent a 10 – 15 percent improvement over the A18 Pro's 3,479 single-core and 8,568 multi-core scores. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/2yPdtEN via

Microsoft first announced plans to retire the Visual Basic Scripting language in 2023, giving developers and organizations ample time to prepare. The company is now reiterating that VBScript deprecation is imminent, which could significantly affect custom automation solutions integrated with Office applications. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/HEtwbBT via

Speculation about a Spotify HiFi tier began nearly a decade ago, and in early 2021 the company pledged that lossless streaming would arrive "later this year." By mid-2024, internal interface leaks suggested it was nearly ready... only for more delays to follow. That history left many Premium users skeptical when... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/D7zMPtc via

Announced earlier today, Really Simple Licensing, or RSL, is an open, decentralized protocol developed by the non-profit RSL Collective. Built on the widely used RSS (Really Simple Syndication) standard, it can handle any digital content – web pages, books, videos, and datasets – across millions of websites. Unlike traditional licensing... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/DTUWs06 via

President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill was passed in July, and part of that bill was the new "no tax on tips" law that would allow workers to earn tips and not have to declare them on taxes. The U.S. Treasury released a list of professions that were eligible for this law last week. Somewhat surprisingly, content creators of various types made the list.  The list mostly includes the stuff you would expect, including bartenders, wait staff, food servers, gambling employees like dealers, dancers (yep, those types), ushers, lobby attendants, bellhops, and entertainers.  Tucked into the list is “Digital Content Creators,” which the Treasury defines as people who "produce and publish on digital platforms original entertainment or personality-driven content, such as live streams, short-form videos, or podcasts." SEE ALSO: How content creators are redefining Hollywood's power structure Comedians, singers, musicians, and DJs are also included. These types of per...

Apple unveiled its new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 features today, including Apple's first attempt at blood pressure monitoring. With advanced detection tools powered by machine learning, Apple explained, watches will now track and monitor signs of hypertension over a period of time. If the watch deduces the wearer is experiencing chronic high blood pressure, it will urge users to record their blood pressure using a third-party blood pressure cuff and alert their physician, according to American Heart Association guidelines. SEE ALSO: Apple Event 2025 live blog: Every 'awe-dropping' announcement, including iPhone 17 The device uses an optical heart sensor to analyze how blood vessels respond to heart beats over a 30-day period. Its algorithm was built using data from 100,000 participants and later validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants, said Apple. Credit: Apple It won't be able to detect every moment of hypertension, b...

At its big livestreamed announcement event on Tuesday, Apple finally dropped all the news on the iPhone 17 lineup. While some annual iPhone upgrades feel very incremental, this year's batch of new iPhones does feel like it has a little more juice than usual. Part of that is the new design, as Apple has reimagined the rear camera bump as a wider, more horizontal camera island. As we'll get to shortly, there are also some exciting changes in the spec sheet. The iPhone 17 comes in four colors: Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White, and Sage. Here are the basic specs for iPhone 17: 6.3-inch display with adaptive 120Hz refresh rate 3,000 nits peak brightness A19 chip 128GB/256GB/512GB storage 8GB RAM 3,600mAh battery Rear cameras: 48MP wide, 48MP ultrawide The two big things to note here are the refresh rate and the megapixel count on the front camera. Apple's base model iPhones have lagged behind the competition for years, stubbornly sticking with 60Hz...

It's getting more and more difficult to navigate an internet ecosystem rife with AI-generated video — much of it slop — designed to flood the ephemeral attention marketplace online. Good news movie buffs: That experience could soon come to a theater near you! The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive report on a project called Critterz that is backed by OpenAI and will look to make a feature-length movie largely created via generative artificial intelligence . The movie centers on woodland creatures going on an adventure. The exact process of how the movie will be made wasn't made totally clear. The report from the WSJ suggested the script was human-written and that human artists would feed images into AI tools to generate footage. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The selling point of Critterz, at least as it seems in the WSJ article , was lowered costs and a faster turnaround. That is, by and large, the selling poin...

According to research firm Cox Automotive, which shared its latest EV sales data with Reuters, Tesla vehicles made up 38% of total US EV sales in August. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/Ygi59uD via

TL;DR: Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows is just $39.97 (reg. $219.99) through Sept. 14. — a lifetime license, one-time payment, all the apps you’ll ever need. Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License $39.97 $219.99 Save $180.02 Get Deal Free productivity tools sound appealing until you try to share a file and the formatting goes sideways. That’s why Microsoft Office has stayed the go-to standard . It just works the way it’s supposed to. For a limited time, you can pick up Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows with a lifetime license for only $39.97. No subscription fees every month. No recurring charges. Just the full suite of professional apps, installed directly on your PC. SEE ALSO: The 6 best laptops under $500: Back-to-school edition This bundle includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access, giving you the same set of tools relied on i...

TL;DR: Skip the endless searching — BitMar collects all the free streaming content already out there and puts it in one place for a one-time payment of just $14.99. Opens in a new window Credit: BitMar BitMar Streaming Content-Finder: Lifetime Subscription $14.99 $150 Save $135.01 Get Deal Everyone’s got their go-to paid streaming apps , but here’s a not-so-secret truth: there’s a ton of free content floating around online — if you’re willing to dig for it. Movies, music, shows, even live channels are out there for the taking. The problem? Tracking it all down is about as fun as untangling holiday lights. That’s why BitMar was created. Think of BitMar as your personal streaming librarian. It pulls together millions of free, on-demand movies, shows, channels, videos, and songs from across the web and organizes them into one easy-to-navigate platform. No sketchy links, no bouncing between tabs, no wasted time. Just content, ready when you are. SEE ALSO: Score a st...

Before Hamlet, there was Hamnet. He was the young son of William Shakespeare who died in his youth, inspiring the playwright to spin the timeless tragedy of a doomed Danish prince. Hamnet explores that true story through a mystical and matriarchal lens of Maggie O'Farrell's heralded novel of the same name, adapted by the Academy Award–winning director of Nomadland , Chloé Zhao, and her Academy-nominated actors, Paul Mescal ( Aftersun ) and Jessie Buckley ( The Lost Daughter ).  This period drama seems primed to be a contender this award season. But Oscar buzz tends to mold the expectations of dramas — especially those even loosely biographical — into one box: star-stuffed theatrics festooned with tears, a soaring emotional score, and pretty scenes of pain, perfect for an award ceremony sizzle reel. To expect such a thing from Zhao, Mescal, and Buckley would be to ignore what's brought them acclaim to begin with.  This trio has separately won praise for their nuanced...

The eight-month study, conducted in 2023, involved 10 simulated phishing campaigns targeting staff across the California health system. Researchers sought to determine whether the standard annual training, widely used across industries, enhanced employees' ability to identify and avoid malicious emails. Instead of showing a gradual decline in attentiveness over time,... Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/VglXJAc via

TL;DR: Produce your next nonfiction manuscript with this AI-powered nonfiction book generator; a lifetime subscription to Youbooks is on sale for just $49 (reg. $540). Opens in a new window Credit: Youbooks Youbooks AI Non-Fiction Book Generator: Lifetime Subscription $49 $540 Save $491 Get Deal Are you someone who always has creative ideas but lacks the know-how to bring them to life? With the help of AI , the time to share your ideas is now. Youbooks is an AI nonfiction book generator that can help craft polished, ready-to-publish non-fiction books . For a limited time, you can grab a lifetime subscription for just $49.  Break free from writer’s block with Youbooks Say goodbye to the days of staring at a blinking cursor. It’s time to live guilt-free from daydreaming for too long. Youbooks takes your ideas and turns them into thoughtfully crafted manuscripts up to 300,000 words while keeping your unique voice in mind. Are you a history teacher with a hot...

Even the most devoted comedy nerd may not realize how many truly iconic comedies of past and present might never have existed if it weren't for a single theatrical production. Everything from Only Murders in the Building and Schitt's Creek to SCTV and Saturday Night Live can be linked back to a 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, which boasted such not-yet-famous performers as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Jayne Eastwood, and Paul Shaffer.  Incredibly, over its much raved about (and protested) 14-month run, not a soul thought to video record this production for posterity. So, 53 years later, documentarian Nick Davis aims to bring us back to this pivotal time and place with the preposterously and perfectly titled You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution , Spread Love & Overalls , and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way).  For the sake of brevit...

AI company Anthropic has agreed to settle a lawsuit from authors. The cost: $1.5 billion. A judge still needs to approve the settlement, but lawyers representing the group of authors celebrated the major update in the case. "As best as we can tell, it’s the largest copyright recovery ever," Justin Nelson, a lawyer for the authors, told the Associated Press . "It is the first of its kind in the AI era." The authors' class-action lawsuit argued that Anthropic took pirated copies of the book to train its AI chatbot, Claude. The lawsuit covered about 500,000 works, meaning the total payout could come in around $3,000 per work, should the settlement be approved. SEE ALSO: Anthropic let Claude run a shop. Let's just say the AI agent is not a business tycoon. Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, emphasized to Ars Technica in a statement that the court found "Anthropic’s approach to training AI models constitutes fair use." ...

The 2025 NFL season is officially underway, and some fans have already identified a new TV commercial they never want to see again. Thursday night's game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles was, in many ways, an all-time goofy kickoff game. One of the Eagles' best players was ejected before the first play because he spit on the Cowboys quarterback, and then there was a lengthy lightning-related weather delay in the third quarter, which meant the game ended well after midnight on the East Coast. However, some fans online were much more annoyed by an official NFL commercial celebrating the new season, which aired once during the game. (You can also watch the ad on the NFL YouTube channel .) The "Ride the Float" commercial riled up some fans online (and, I can confirm, the people I watched the game with) because major parts of it really looked like they were made with generative AI. There are lots of real celebrity cameos, including Druski and The ...

Roblox Corporation recently announced plans to expand "age estimation" measures to all users. The system will focus on those accessing the platform's chat features. Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said the changes will take effect by the end of the year. Read Entire Article from TechSpot https://ift.tt/Cf9YZbF via